The NY Giants received word that the second one of their players had decided to opt-out of the 2020 NFL season.
This opt-out surely will not bring in the same kind of buzz that Nate Solder’s opt-out decision did earlier in the week, but this opt-out actually helps the NY Giants as they look to get their roster size under control after deciding to go back to the 80-man limit.
Dave Gettleman is appearing to finally take the right approach to the rebuild, choosing to spend the small amount of cap savings the NY giants got relief on over the next two years – and massive “savings” in 2020 – by locking up one of his own promising young players
Before opting-out of this season, wideout Da’Mari Scott went undrafted out of Fresno State – not unexpected as he was mostly a return specialist in college – only to spend time with the Browns and Bills in 2018, failing to accumulate any stats despite officially logging three games of official game action before latching on with the NY Giants in 2019.
After not compiling any stats with either of his two prior teams, Scott finally “earned” his way onto the field for Big Blue’s Week12 game against the Packers and the results were not pretty.
In what I called the turning point of the game at the time – and still, believe so – head coach/offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur puzzlingly decided to call Scott’s number for his first career touch on a pivotal 2nd and 10 play with his team down 11 from about midfield at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Not only that, he decided to give him a jet sweep despite the NY Giants’ offense finally starting to get a rhythm in one of the worst executed football plays you’ll ever see.
Scott fumbled Daniel Jones’ clean toss on the sweep (why we were giving jet sweeps out to inexperience players at such a crucial play – only for it to blow up in Big Blue’ face resulting in a back-breaking eight-yard loss, I’ll never understand).
Via @art_stapleton on Twitter:
Botched jet sweep - whatever that was - to Da'Mari Scott and Daniel Jones follows that up with an interception. Sailed one over Sterling Shepard's head.
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) December 1, 2019
From there, quarterback Daniel Jones was forced to take a shot when the Green Bay defense knew he’d have to resulting in a game-ending interception for all intents and purposes.
Da’Mari Scott went on to play sparingly down the stretch despite the NY Giants’ skill group being banged up, totaling two reception for 22 yards — the first official stats of his career as he played in just 5% of the teams total offensive snaps in 2019, all taking place during and after that Week 12 debacle against Green Bay.
It was a perfect example of Pat Shurmur outthinking himself and getting too cute with the offense as he still had a healthy Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shepard, Kaden Smith, and Darius Slayton to work with on that crazy-important second down.